17 Comments

Please don’t ever have this person on again.

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the BS formula is totally working for you. Matt is your Joe House. I subscribe because I am an East Bay neighbor and rabid dubs fan, but greatly appreciate your non-NBA content. I think Spike was right about repeat guests and personal friend guests. it works. sure everyone loves Wos, but he is basically a national brand at this point. Anywho, excellent pod.

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Spike Eskin, on HOS: "your guest is never going to tease you about something he knows about you...which would make you more human to the listener, which would make you more real...more likable...because they dont know you".

please make Klinman a regular - your listeners might find you more real and likable!

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Ethan if you were to write a screen play in the manner of Knives Out complete with thinly veiled analogues of Woj, Adam Silver, LeBron and Sarah Spain I would expect the satire to be immaculately incisive. If your takedown of Woj was essentially:

"He's really incredibly dumb" We would think less of you.

Clearly, Rian Johnson really really wants me to hate the rich, from Canto Bight to the Trumpy family in Knives Out (how delicious! the Latina nurse gets the mansion at the end!) to Elon Musk and Joe Rogan. But he lacks the ability to write real characters that we believe.

I don’t have a dog in the Elon fight, but if you want to propagandize me against him you need to make the case that he is DANGEROUS, or at least wantonly sloppy or…something. He doesn’t need to be Daniel Plainview, but Ed Norton’s character can’t be this dumb and unsubstantial.

The movie seems to critique him more for having tacky stylistic choices than stealing his company from Janelle Monae or threatening presumably thousands with his energy project. It just rings false. And the final message is the same as the Last Jedi: Destroy the past…even if we’re talking about the Mona Lisa.

Does the average moviegoer think it’s funny to have the Mona Lisa destroyed to ruin some rich guy? I honestly don’t know, but Rian Johnson thinks it’s hilarious and I don’t get it.

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I might be changing my tepid thumbs up to a thumbs down.

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April 12, 2023
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...and then you silently judge your fellow fans who take the national reporter's word as gospel

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Matt rules.

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Lol totally agree with Matt on Elon.

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Easily my least favorite guest you’ve had on the pod. Dude is a walking MSNBC bot.

I listened because I enjoy your takes but I can promise you I won’t listen to another one if he’s a guest.

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I recognize Matt Klinman as a treasure. Not for his passionate takes on Elon, his quality comedy, or his commitment to education. Shouting out (the GOAT) Mr. Decker is the greatest way to introduce yourself. I am still in shock.

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Analogising AI to jerking off was a pretty good one.

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Synced up!!

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I feel like I could have stopped after the first 5 minutes of the podcast. He doesn’t like Musk and thinks he sucks, dumb, and stupid. Not much of value after that. He repeats this same mantra 100 times throughout the podcast. I have no strong opinion of Musk either way but this guy comes across as having a personal grudge.

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Ethan’s anti-anti woke description was spot on. And one thing that group tends to do is bend over backwards to find creative alternative explanations so they don’t have to be on the side of the anti-woke.

Matt’s reluctance to connect the dots between a self righteous puritanical cleansing ideology and the self inflicted wounds of profitable businesses was pretty rich.

“Maybe they suck” he says, or maybe it’s the internet! But it’s definitely not a trend of younger employees in middle/upper class sectors imposing their norms to shift the Overton window to their liking.

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one question/comment that came up--you both seem to agree that the economics of podcasting had become unsound/are collapsing. I hope you do an article or a guest interview on this topic.

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I never touched Ted Lasso because it was beloved by the worst NPC libs. Too much art is beat you over the head didactic these days.

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April 11, 2023Edited
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Him an Ethan have great chemistry and I loved this ep but the idea that the lack of professionalism brought about by left wing culture had nothing to do with Reply All’s demise is insane. Maybe I can’t define ‘woke’, but most examples of it seem to just be professional jealousy run amok.

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